Polish finance ministry says sold EUR 2.2 bln on market in 2016

WARSAW, May 15 (Reuters) - Poland’s finance ministry exchanged foreign currencies worth 2.2 billion euros ($2.41 billion) into zlotys on financial markets in 2016, less than the 6.4 billion euros exchanged in 2015, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.

The ministry can exchange the billions of euros it receives in European Union funds on financial markets or at the central bank, with the latter way having less impact on the zloty exchange rate.

The ministry also said that it conducted zloty-denominated interest rate swap (IRS) transactions with a notional value of 27.0 billion zlotys in 2016. The ministry did not conduct such IRS transactions in 2015.

“The aim of these transactions was to distribute debt servicing costs over time within the years 2016-2017,” the ministry said.

“As a result of concluded transactions debt servicing costs in 2016 has risen and in 2017 has decreased by 1.4 billion zlotys.” ($1 = 0.9111 euros) (Reporting by Marcin Goettig)